Continuous Delivery and its importance in software development

The IT industry is constantly churning out new technology and better software. As the industry continues to grow, more and more companies are jumping on the IT bandwagon. This competition is what keeps organizations on their toes and challenges them to bring out their best.

To survive this cut-throat competition, organizations must produce better software products at a faster pace than their competitors. This is where Continuous Delivery steps in.

What is Continuous Delivery?

The software development cycle involves several stages. Apart from the actual product development, performance testing and feedback integration are the other crucial stages in the said cycle.

Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software development practice that enables developers to run through the various stages of product development, testing, feedback integration, and release, rapidly so that the users receive better products at a faster pace.

With Continuous Delivery, software deployment gets quicker. CD also ensures that this practice of continuous software deployment is sustainable. It does so by setting up a framework for software deployment, that is simple and easy to replicate.

Why is it important?

The company that adopts the practice of Continuous Delivery can meet its deadlines and churn out better quality products, consistently. Though Continuous Delivery is all about speed, it does not lead to a compromise on quality or stability, as it involves the setting up of stable processes that can be followed repeatedly.

Therefore, those companies which adopt CD perform better and are more reliable than their counterparts. The following are some of the distinct advantages of adopting Continuous Delivery:

Increased reliability: At its core, Continuous Delivery is all about automation and reducing software delivery downtime. It allows continuous deployment of new features/ products so that they are ready for release, on demand. CD allows this by setting up retraceable patterns such as blue-green deployment, that make it possible to reduce both the release downtime and the rollback time in case of an emergency.

Faster delivery: When a new software product/ app/ feature is developed, it needs to be tested for optimal performance on the various software environments (operating systems like Android, iOS, Windows, etc.) Continuous Delivery allows the automation of testing and integration phases of software development. This helps reduce the software release time.

Improved performance: Through the automation of key processes such as testing and feedback integration, CD allows teams to shift their focus to key performance determiners such as usability testing, security testing, performance testing, etc.

Improved efficiency: The software development cycle does not end upon software release. The software is continuously updated with new features to improve its performance. Continuous Delivery allows the automation of the change deployment processes, thereby reducing the fixed costs associated with software updation and release processes.

Improved product quality: Due to the reduced costs, as discussed above, organizations that adopt Continuous Delivery practices can afford to work on products in smaller batches. This makes it easy to integrate user feedback into the current software. Companies can also use techniques such as A/B testing to test new ideas and features. This makes it possible to retain only those features that add value to the existing products, thereby improving product quality.

Delighted customers: With improved product quality and quicker release cycles, an organization can offer efficient products at a faster pace. Also, automation of processes allows more time for teams to interact with customers and gather feedback.

Continuous Delivery is all about gradual but consistent improvement of the various processes involved in software development and release cycles. If you are in search of a reliable practice that allows you to deliver better products in shorter time spans, Continuous Delivery is for you.